Voice of the Super Bowl, Al Michaels, on calling big games

PASADENA, Calif. – The first Super Bowl was played on Jan. 15, 1967. Al Michaels was there.

On Sunday, Michaels will be calling his ninth Super Bowl as the New England Patriots meet the Seattle Seahawks. (Kickoff for Super Bowl XLIX is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET on CTV and RDS as well as on NBC).

Back in 1967, Michaels wasn’t in the booth as the familiar play-by-play voice we know today.

He was simply a spectator. His father, who was also in broadcasting, was able to score two 50-yard-line seats at the Los Angeles Coliseum for Michaels and his brother.

“We were kids, and we had great seats because there were about 35,000 empty seats,” Michaels told reporters attending the recent winter gathering of the Television Critics Association.

Michaels recalls that both CBS and NBC covered that first Super Bowl game since they couldn’t decide “who should get rights to the game.” Those rights now rotate each year between CBS, Fox and NBC.

Last year, 111.5 million Americans and 7.9 million Canadians watched the Super Bowl.

“Nobody had any idea that this would evolve into what it’s become,” says Michaels.

“What this is really, it’s an undeclared national holiday.”

For the fourth straight year, Michaels finds himself on the most-watched TV show in the United States — “Sunday Night Football.” NBC’s primetime NFL showcase draws an average of 21.5 million viewers a week. More Americans tune in to Michaels and company during the football season than watch “The Big Bang Theory,” “NCIS” or “American Idol.”

Still, Michaels realizes that the past season has “been a year that the NFL, in many regards, would love to forget.”

Domestic abuse scandals involving NFL stars Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson made headlines right at the start of the season.

“I think we have a responsibility to address the issue,” says Michaels. “I don’t think you belabour it.”

The fact that ratings and attendance has not dropped off is because football fans “can compartmentalize a lot of this,” he feels.

“They know there’s stuff that has to be cleaned up … but you get to the weekend, and the fan has basically said, ‘I want my football.'”

Concussions are another issue that won’t go away.

“If parents begin to think that, you know, they don’t want their kids under any circumstance to play football, that’s a big issue down the line,” he acknowledges.

Asked if he’d let his own grandchildren play the game, the 70-year-old says it’s not his call, it’s up to the parents.

“They play hockey, which is a fairly dangerous sport in and of itself, and I’m fairly comfortable with that,” he says.

Michaels is a big L.A. Kings fan and called the famous “Miracle on Ice” U.S. victory during the 1980 Winter Olympics.

Michaels has called memorable World Series baseball games as well as golf, tennis and hockey but will be best remembered as the voice of both Monday and Sunday night football. His long run on both franchises extends back to 1986, a continuous broadcast stretch comparable to David Letterman’s late night reign.

His memory for facts and figures is still sharp, as are his recollections. That came in handy while writing (with Jon Wertheim) his recent autobiography, “You Can’t Make This Up: Miracles, Memories, and the Perfect Marriage of Sports and Television.”

Among the tales in the book are his pre-sports broadcasting days wrangling contestants for producer Chuck Barris on “The Dating Game.”

“He hired me to be one of the people who would sit in a room all day long and call people and ask if they wanted to come down to be interviewed or audition,” says Michaels.

“Chuck would always say, ‘No. 1, look for either a very attractive person, or, No. 2, a whack job.'”

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